


Chase

by ambyr



Series: Sunspark in Britain [1]
Category: Eagle of the Ninth - Rosemary Sutcliff, Tale of the Five Series - Diane Duane
Genre: Crossover, Gen, Pre-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-16
Updated: 2013-01-16
Packaged: 2017-11-25 18:02:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 292
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/641532
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ambyr/pseuds/ambyr
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Cottia seeks out her newest--and strangest--friend for a distraction.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Chase

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Sineala](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sineala/gifts).



> A thank-you-for betaing treat, aka Sunspark Sadly Does Not Care That There Are No Rabbits in Roman Britain. Prequel to The Door into Britannia.

"Sunspark?" Cottia called softly. The sun had scarcely risen, and in the pale morning light the field behind their house glistened with dew. She knew Sunspark preferred the later hours, when the sun was strong and all the mist had burned away, but anything, even a fruitless search, was better than watching the tears glisten on her mother's face as she stared unseeing into the fire. "Sunspark?"

There was no sign of the horse, whose blood bay coloring should have stood out against the soft spring grass like a robin's chest against snow. But there, at the corner of the field—Cottia saw a flash of something golden, and gave chase.

The hare led her on a merry hunt, darting back and forth across the field and weaving between the pine trees of the farthest copse. She cornered it finally against the mill stream, and flopped onto the soft, mossy bank beside it.

"You run very well in that form," Cottia said admiringly.

Sunspark rubbed at its nose with one foot, smoothing fur tangled by low-hanging branches. "Do you like it, then?"

"Very much so." It was a fine hare—golden as an autumn hill, with faint russet patches on his back and a creamy stomach. "Only your ears are a bit short, perhaps. And your legs—though if they were as long as most hares, I should never have caught you!"

"You would never have caught me in any case if I had not let you," Sunspark said. "And I think these ears are very fine. But well enough." A shimmering like a heatwave rose about it, and Cottia rolled hastily away as Sunspark melted to flame and coalesced into a horse. "Let us see if you can catch me now."


End file.
